This table from an reliable source in 2011 portrays OCFA’s salaries and benefits as even higher than the table we published last weekend per a Teri Sforza Register story of a few months ago. But Biggs’ conclusion if even more breathtaking:

…total annual compensation for an average Orange County firefighter is somewhere in the neighborhood of $290,000 per year. It’s a difficult and sometimes dangerous job, to be sure – but there are other difficult and dangerous jobs as well. It’s up to Orange County residents to decide what to pay public servants, but a good first step is to know what they’re currently paying.

Certainly the too close relationship between the the public sector unions and the electeds contributes to this astronomical salary and benefit inflation. Lincoln Club Board Member and AD74 candidate Keith Curry’s recent taking of $2,000 from the OC Professional Firefighters Union illustrates the problem and the symbiotic relationship between electeds and organized labor in the public sector in that one supports the other. Prop. 32 was designed to break these ties and stop the madness.

The nation’s astoundingly well-paid public firefighters insist that they receive their high salaries and pensions (averaging around $175,000 a year in total compensation in California, with age-50 retirements and schedules that allow them to sleep on the job and work only a few days every two weeks) because of the terrible dangers they face on the job. They do face occasional and serious dangers, but according to a new National Public Radio report, such dangers are well below those faced by most of America’s workers.The average death rate in 2011 was 3.5 per 100,000 workers for the average American worker. Fishermen had the most dangerous jobs with 121 deaths per 100,000, followed by loggers and pilots. Firefighters die at a rate of 2.5 per 100,000 workers, which is slightly above the rate for cashiers (1.6).

The nation’s astoundingly well-paid public firefighters insist that they receive their high salaries and pensions (averaging around $175,000 a year in total compensation in California, with age-50 retirements and schedules that allow them to sleep on the job and work only a few days every two weeks) because of the terrible dangers they face on the job. They do face occasional and serious dangers, but according to a new National Public Radio report, such dangers are well below those faced by most of America’s workers.

The average death rate in 2011 was 3.5 per 100,000 workers for the average American worker. Fishermen had the most dangerous jobs with 121 deaths per 100,000, followed by loggers and pilots. Firefighters die at a rate of 2.5 per 100,000 workers, which is slightly above the rate for cashiers (1.6).

– See more at: http://calwatchdog.com/2013/01/23/firefighter-one-of-nations-safest-jobs/#sthash.O69QZ26U.dpuf

The nation’s astoundingly well-paid public firefighters insist that they receive their high salaries and pensions (averaging around $175,000 a year in total compensation in California, with age-50 retirements and schedules that allow them to sleep on the job and work only a few days every two weeks) because of the terrible dangers they face on the job. They do face occasional and serious dangers, but according to a new National Public Radio report, such dangers are well below those faced by most of America’s workers.

The average death rate in 2011 was 3.5 per 100,000 workers for the average American worker. Fishermen had the most dangerous jobs with 121 deaths per 100,000, followed by loggers and pilots. Firefighters die at a rate of 2.5 per 100,000 workers, which is slightly above the rate for cashiers (1.6).

– See more at: http://calwatchdog.com/2013/01/23/firefighter-one-of-nations-safest-jobs/#sthash.O69QZ26U.dpuf

The nation’s astoundingly well-paid public firefighters insist that they receive their high salaries and pensions (averaging around $175,000 a year in total compensation in California, with age-50 retirements and schedules that allow them to sleep on the job and work only a few days every two weeks) because of the terrible dangers they face on the job. They do face occasional and serious dangers, but according to a new National Public Radio report, such dangers are well below those faced by most of America’s workers.

The average death rate in 2011 was 3.5 per 100,000 workers for the average American worker. Fishermen had the most dangerous jobs with 121 deaths per 100,000, followed by loggers and pilots. Firefighters die at a rate of 2.5 per 100,000 workers, which is slightly above the rate for cashiers (1.6).

– See more at: http://calwatchdog.com/2013/01/23/firefighter-one-of-nations-safest-jobs/#sthash.O69QZ26U.dpuf

Using NPR data, Steve blows a hole in the old, tired argument that firefighters deserve outsized compensation due to the hazards of the job — these numbers illustrate that’s no excuse either, but probably good enough for Democrats and other low-information voters. He also reminds us “the government considers it an ‘on the job’ death when a firefighter or cop dies from heart attacks, cancer and other common ailments”. The Labor Department statistics are here. We’ve lived in Orange County for nearly 30 years and can’t recall a death or debilitating injury suffered by an on-duty OCFA fireman, so the safety argument is simply anemic.

But the issue here really boils down to what we’re getting for our money. OCFA has successfully survived under the radar for years, and with its union’s defense of its membership using the clout that comes with campaign cash, it’s been unscathed by the press — until recently, and thanks mostly to the Voice of OC. Here’s a recent INVENTORY OF INCOMPETENCE of what OC taxpayers and their elected minders are reallyreceiving from this huge, overpaid, over-benefited expensively-equipped and well-shielded County agency: